Wife woke up about 4:00 AM with mild contractions. I woke up around 6:30 because she was sitting up in bed and eating Corn Nuts, and everybody knows there's no way to eat corn nuts quietly.

We got up and I tidied the house while she did the dishes and made pancakes. We watched the sun rise, and then we walked to the store (about a mile round trip) to get a pumpkin. Then she had a hot shower while I inflated the pool. Now she's trying to nap a bit.

Throughout this, her contractions have been about 30 seconds long and between 3 and 7 minutes apart. Sometimes she gets short ones which start, but don't progress all the way down.

Sometimes this sort of early labor stops; then it's called "false labor". Our midwife prefers "practice labor". But of course all true labor starts with early labor signs, so this could be the real thing. This morning as we were cleaning up I felt that the day was marked, somehow. Even if this isn't the day our child is born, I'll remember it for a long time.